Hamm, the village inside Luxembourg City where Patton lies

If you’ve searched for Hamm, the odds are you’re looking for Patton’s grave. Fair enough, but the district has more going for it than that. Hamm is a plateau on the east side of Luxembourg City with the feel of a village, home to 1,569 people at the end of 2023. The valley below is where Luxembourg’s industry began. The city gives it 407 hectares; the tourist office points out that’s more ground than Kirchberg.

The cemetery almost everyone comes for

Luxembourg American Cemetery sits on the edge of the district at 50 Val du Scheid. It was opened on 29 December 1944, in the middle of the Ardennes offensive, and holds more than 5,000 American service members and Patton himself. Admission is free and it opens daily from 9am to 5pm. Everything practical, from the numbers to finding the Easy Company graves, is on its own page. All I’d add here is that it makes more sense if you’ve walked past the village church first.

The church and its plaques

On the front of Hamm’s church are two plaques from the American Luxembourg Society, remembering Remembrance Day and the soldiers who died here. The tourist office dates the church and a convent to the 14th century, and a calvary from 1739 stands beside it. The village grew late. The 70 family houses round the church only went up in 1931, and a civic hospice followed some thirty years on.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Luxembourg before prices climb.

Why did Hamm matter?

Position. In Roman times a guard post here controlled the way into the Alzette valley, and in 1684 Louis XIV’s army camped on the plateau to besiege the fortress, the «Gibraltar of the North». The first written record is a deed of sale from 1243. In 1796 the village, spelt Hamme on the maps, had just 90 inhabitants.

The valley of the mills

The other story lies downhill. Hamm had five mills, and from 1835 the Godchaux brothers turned them into spinning and cloth works. At their peak they employed more than 800 people. The First World War and the decline of textiles knocked the local economy flat, and the commune joined the capital in 1920.

Today that valley, the Dällchen, is a woodland walk under steep rock faces. The old Schläifmillen houses the Atelier op der Schläifmillen, with art spilling outside, including a pink piece by Rafael Springer and a canoe stood on end by the kayak club. Of the industrial age, a tall chimney from the Follmühle and a weir in the river survive. Most of the mills now fall within neighbouring Pulvermühl, under fifteen minutes’ walk from the church.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Luxembourg before prices climb.

Getting about and where to stay

Bus 29 gets you from the central station or the airport to Cents-Hamm without a ticket, since Luxembourg free public transport includes every bus, tram and second-class train. Hamm is residential, so I’d sleep in central Luxembourg City or, on a late flight from the UK, near the airport, and come out by bus in the morning.

If you would rather have a local show you round, book a guided tour in Luxembourg and choose by the reviews.

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So you do not pay over the odds, look at trains, coaches and flights to Luxembourg on Omio and pick the one that suits you.